Spinalcore

I have Swordtails, 2 CAE, Danios, and misc small snails in one of my tanks. I have seen the CAE in one the Empty apple snail shells today I had a danio get inside it and flip the shell over traping herself inside and tried to break out but trapped herself in a hole that she made in the side of the shell and died. When I removed her from the shell there were all these eggs bunched together. They looked like a quartz piece of gravel so I dumped them back into the tank just to find the swords start to eat them. They are too big to be snail eggs from any of my snails, and I have read that Danios scatter their eggs. So now I'm left thinking that I just might have CAE eggs but I don't know if they are fertile I have put them in a seperate container floating in the tank. Does anyone know anything about CAE breeding just incase they are fertile? I am not even aware if I have a male and female, just females, or just males and the eggs just being danio eggs. Any help figuring this out would be appreciated.

They are so small that all that you can really see is a little black dot with a transparent tail at about 0.1" as of 1 day. The eggs are little 0.03" white dots. At 4 weeks they are just under 0.5". Here a Site that shows the growth rate and sizes of bettas from eggs to 11 weeks http://www.waynesthisandthat.com/bettagrowth.html My first spawn is 3.5 weeks old and already just under 0.5"

I just had 2 crowntails Breed in the last hour or so. I don't know how this batch will do as he never built his nest and it is both of their first spawn. The first spawn: Laid on June 24, Hatched June 26th Has 3 or 4 fry still alive after 3 weeks out of 75-150. The Second spawn: Laid on July 12th, Hatched on the 14th Appears to have 30+ alive after 1 Week out of 100+. And the third: Laid on July 21st, Should Hatch in 36 hours. it looks like about 150 eggs Spawn 1 & 2 are the same parents (F Blue CT, M Pastel CT/VT cross) spawn 3 is 2 crowntails. (F Cambodian CT, M Steel Red Butterfly CT) 3 Spawns in 3 weeks!!!! I might be over run with bettas if this keeps up over the summer. (as long as I can keep them alive)

I have most of the material rounded up now and Have come up wth the Idea to try a 2x4 frame around the outside with a center support 2x4 in the middle of the front I should be assembling the frame as of this Sunday. My stepdad has the sheets of wood at his work for me to use and the rest of the materials are at his house for me. It is going to be a fairly large tank by the time it is built and It will be setup in my back yard for testing how well it stays together and holds water. I will update everyone on the progress again after this weekend. That is aslong as I can make it over there to put it together on Sunday. I have been working on the "blueprints" trying to perfect the Ideas for construction. I think that I may have worked out the assembly problems now.

Not too sure on the Type of rasboras yet. The zebras help keep the bettas inline from my own experiences. They are used as dither fish to distract the more aggresive fish from fighting. The dimenssions of the tank will be at least 60"Lx20"Wx30"H minimum. It will be a really heavy Planted so that it looks a piece of the natural enviroment. I am hoping to see how they would live in their enviroment (or atleast a replica of it). I will keep people updated on the progress of the project after I get it started.

I am planning on trying a 150+ gal planted Biotope correct tank: 2 males and 3 females with 15 Zebra Danios, 6 Rasboras, 2 Red Tail Black Sharks, and a couple of Clown or Weather Loaches or Cats. It should be big enough to keep the males from fighting and give them their own space. Currently they are all have their own tanks/kits. Mine: 3 Females (1 Blue Crowntail, 1 Cambodian Crowntail, and 1 Steel single tail) 2 Males (1 Pastel Marble Combtail, and 1 Almost Butterfly Steel Crowntail) Kaytania's: 1 Female (Cambodian Crowntail) 1 Male (Tri-color Veiltail) Her Male is in a 10 Gallon Breeder with 1 of my females housed in a glass Lantern Chimney 1 of my males is in the 8 Gallon breeder taking care of the eggs from his second spawn. How are other people housing their's?

Thanks AB. Down to 4 or 5 fry now. But the same 2 decided to spawn again Just yesterday afternoon. I have been ablle to keep those 2 in the same tank with only a bunch of chasing and flaring Hardly any agression between the 2. She only took some fin nips from their first spawning and 2 weeks between spawnings for them. I guess that I have finally found 2 compatible bettas. Their tank has gravel, Java Moss and Hygo. Difformis in it other than that nothing special. With a 15 watt incandescent bulb for the plants (which are growing really well) and half a Styrofoam cup taped to one side in the 8 gallon tank it is a normal setup. All the fry that are left are the ones moved with the male when I removed him to his smaller home from the breeding tank. All the ones that were still in the tank died. The smaller betta kit home has algea that they seem to be living off of for the most part and infusoria. More updates to come.

Update: I am now down to 14 fry left which is still in the 80 to 90% will die in the first 10 days safe margine. A second spawn is in preparation. I am Conditioning 2 Crowntails for this attempt. The first spawn is now at the 10 Day mark since hatching.

Thanks for the advice everyone I will let you know how it turns out.

The plexi-glass is basicly for extra sealant and to protect the paint. The glass will only be 30" because I am a little worried about trying to Cut it down in size. I plan on testing it for at least a week or 2 before using it. So it won't be in use for atleast 3 weeks after it is put together. I'm getting everything for free so if it blows out the glass or falls apart I will just try again. I will be putting a center support bar in the center of the front for added security to try to reduce the strain and keep the glass from breaking. I'm getting my Stepfather whom is a Framer to help me put it together. I'm not that great with building things using wood. So I have all the supplies at his place at the moment. (Or will have Shortly) Since we are using OSB we will have to do a trial run on the tank anyways. I will be setting it up in my backyard for the trial run since we have more romm in our yard than my parents do.

The Internal Dimmesions will be roughly 60"Lx20"Dx30"H. The Glass is Tempered and roughly 80 to 100 lbs per sheet. I'm going to use plexi glass on the inside to protect the paint and the wood from the plecos. The tanks should be Approximately 62"Lx22"Dx32"H for the total area taken up. 1 will be for Africans and the other will probably be a community Tank. I also have 2 other pieces of the glass that are assembled in the shelving unit that is holding up 2 of my 10 Gallon tanks and a bunch of betta tanks and jars. The glass was originally used in a display shelving system at a store and has proven to be a strong high quality glass.

I have two 60''x30'' 1/2'' thick glass sheets. Going to try one with outdoor quality OSB. Will be lining one with plexi-glass. Tanks should end up being a 155 gallon. Also have the glass for 55 gallon and possibly a smaller tank. Will keep updating as I get supplies and progress on building.

Spawn Update: So far, so good. The Male was removed around 5:30pm yesterday, and they all apear to be free swimming. I gave them a couple of ml of infusoria after removing the male. I am try this spawn on Infusoria and Nutrafin Fry food for the time being as I currently only have no other live food to feed them. I will keep updating this as things change.

I am trying Bettas, Endlers, Guppies, Platies, Swordtails and Zebra Danios. Planning on trying BN plecos soon. After the BN plecos I am thinking of trying African Cichlids of some kind. Unsure of what kind yet though. But that is atleast 6 months down the road.

I just had my bettas spawn for the first in 6 - 8 months of trying with differnet ones. My male I have had for 2 months now and the female insisted on spawning with him after only having her for a few hours. So I setup one of our 10 gallons for them and put her in the tank in a oil Lamp Chimney after a couple of more hours she was all bared up again and head down submiting to him so I released her. She wasn't happy with his nest yet so she waited for him to fill up the surface area under the cup and then after a day of waiting him to finish it, they started. That was at 1:00 yesterday afternoon for about an hour. He is a Marbled Crown/Veiltail cross I believe And she is a Blue Crowntail Double-ray

So far it has worked to get me eggs and my male is doing his Dadly duties. (Guarding and replacing the eggs in the nest)

Updated pic of 5 and 6 5 in on top Updated pic of 1 and 2 Updates on 3 and 4 to come

I would but I need to get the bigger tanks built before I can get them. So I have to pass for now. These are my Guess after all of the help and doning research on all the ones guessed to be. 1. Maylandia lombardoi "Young Female" 2.Nimbochromis venustus "Very Young" unsexed 3.Maylandia estherae unsexed 4.Pseudotropheus socolofi "Snow White" (Albino) unsexed 5. 6.

I just bought them so that I could give the Cichlids a try and see if I can keep from loosing them. My main concern with them at the moment is just to try to keep them healthy and happy. I don't think that I could beat the price and not be to worried about about them dying on me to soon. If they die then they die and I use that to learn from. They sure do seem to be quite happy in there at the moment. They hardly hide at all and seem to swim around together occasionally chasing each other but no real violence/nipping. I was just more concerned with figuring out approximate sizes, diet and habitats with finding out what they are. But since they are my first attempt at cichlids the price is right. (For me at least) I'm still going to try as hard to keep them from dying as I would if they were the more expensive ones. Thanks for all of the help everyone.

Here is #s 5 & 6 #5 #6 #5 is more blue to the fins, #6 is more yellow to the fins. But they both look like the same kind to me other than the fin colors. My plans are a 47Lx20Wx30H "150 gallon" tank in the next month or 2 for all of them. (As soon as I get it built and and it is ready to receive them) Then adding some occellotus, multis and BN plecos. Currently: 1 of #1 3 of #2 1 of #3 1 of #4 1 of #5 1 of #6 Future: 2 or 3 Gold Occellotus 2 or 3 Blue Occellotus 2 or 3 Multis 2 BN Plecos Also working on a 50+ gallon Plywood tank

4: I beleive this one is a Pseudotropheus Zebra Albino I have had a guess on another board say #3 could be a Red Pseudotropheus Zebra and #2 a H. Venetus My guess is that #1 is a regular Pseudotropheus Zebra. But being new to them I don't really know. All that I know is they were all in the same tank together just labled as assorted Africans written on the glass. I will try to get some better pics of them ASAP.

Sorry about the inaccessable error. The album has been made public now. I have sent the pics to you rahim101

My only New World ones are 3 Cichlasoma" (Archocentrus) nigrofasciatum fry. (the last 3 Convict fry) I just Picked them up an hour ago or so for $0.50 a piece at Pisces. They have Flowerhorn Fry and assorted Africans for $1.99 each.

I bought 5 assorted Cichlids from Pisces on Friday but I forgot to find out what kinds they are. All that I know is that they are African. I don’t even know what sex any of them are. I am new to cichlids so I was hoping that someone might be able to help me out with identifying and sexing them. I would like to start breeders for them and find out exactly how big they get and what kind of setup they like. They are all around 1” and are in a 10 gal together with no signs of aggression with each other. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Here are pics of the first 3. Sorry about the poor quality. I had to use a web cam for them. 1: http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/spinalcor...b&.dnm=57f8.jpg 2: http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/spinalcor...b&.dnm=716d.jpg 3: http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/spinalcor...b&.dnm=aeb8.jpg

It looks like the cheapest way I have seen seen is the $50 truck liner kit at Canadian Tire. Thanks for the link dunl it has helped me alot.